Can You Workout After Piercing: Is It OK to Sweat?
It can be difficult to set aside time to exercise whether it’s due to a busy work schedule, kids tugging at your legs every second, or simply life being a lot. With juggling home, kids, and work, it can be tough to find time for yourself. But what happens when you add piercings to this mix? Let’s answer the question, “can you workout after piercing?” and learn when you can exercise after each type of piercing and more.
What to Expect with Exercise After Piercing
Today, Google searches are popping up with ‘can you workout after piercing?’ As more and more women choose to get pierced, either after giving birth or before it, it’s important to take into consideration how it can impact their exercise routine.
Whether you are a seasoned professional or a novice at workouts, this article will help you figure out all that you need to know about exercising with a fresh piercing.
Can You Workout After Piercing?
If you’re thinking about whether or not you can workout after getting a piercing, it’s important to ask yourself the following questions.
- How much care does the piercing area require?
- Can I prioritize the healing of my piercing while working out?
- How will my workout clothes effect this piercing? (If at all.)
- How will my chosen workout moves effect this piercing? (If at all.)
Let’s talk about a few points that you should look at before you decide to hit the gym after getting pierced:
Healing Time for Your Piercing
The piercing area is extremely sensitive immediately after the procedure. At this point, it’s extremely vulnerable to any form of activity, which can increase the healing period of the piercing.
While most piercings, especially in sensitive places, can take a few months to heal completely, the first few weeks are extremely crucial and undisturbed recovery is of the utmost importance to avoid any complications.
Your piercer will let you know the healing time of your type of piercing.
Intensive Exercise After Piercing
Any form of excessive physical movement, especially high intensity exercises like HIIT can irritate the skin by causing unnecessary friction around the piercing area.
By exercising too early, you can prolong the healing process of your piercing, and nobody wants to do that.
RELATED: Try to start with yoga routines and then consider progressing to things like Pilates routines before progressing to more vigorous workouts.
Can You Sweat with New Piercings
If you’re wondering if you can sweat with new piercings, then the answer is no. Exposing your brand new piercing to sweat and moisture is a recipe for disaster.
The sweat from engaging in an intense workout session is a breeding ground for bacteria. To avoid your fresh piercings from being infected and inflamed, the best move is to refrain from vigorous exercise until the piercing has healed completely.
Avoid intense exercises that may make you sweat for at least a couple of weeks.
Piercing Aftercare
If you follow the post piercing care guidelines given by your piercer, you may be able to return to exercise after piercing sooner than expected. However, in any case, taking a little break from your workout routine will give you the time that you need to heal faster and without any complications.
While skipping out on your intensive workout routine might help you during the initial healing period, a gradual and slow return to exercise afterwards is usually a good move. Don’t feel like you need to avoid exercising for months on end while your piercing heals.
As the initial healing period ends (after a couple to a few weeks), you can begin exercising again. Just make sure that you begin your workout routine with low impact exercises and as your piercing heals, you can pick up the pace accordingly. This will help you transition into your workout routine while helping your new piercing heal.
Post Piercing Workout Tips by Types Of Piercings
Depending on which part of the body you’ve got pierced, and your sensitivity to piercings, they can take anywhere between a few weeks to a few months to heal. Let’s take a look at some of the most common piercing types and which exercises
are safe to do with them:
Ear Piercings
Ear Piercings such as those seen on ear lobes and cartilage are the most common types of piercings and they heal comparatively faster than the others.
While most of the exercises are suitable after getting your ears pierced, it’s advisable to avoid any form of contact sport or wearing headphones until the piercing has healed completely, especially the cartilage piercing.
Facial Piercings
Facial piercings are another most common type of piercing seen. They can include your nose, eyebrows and even lips. Just like ear piercings, it’s advisable to avoid any contact sports until your facial piercing has healed completely. Moreover, rapid head movements and high impact sports should also be avoided.
Nipple Piercings
For areas as sensitive as nipples, extra caution needs to be exercised. It’s important to let go of high pressure activities like running or jumping. To avoid any friction on or around the pierced site, it’s important to wear soft, breathable, and comfortable clothes.
During the healing period, you can focus on low impact exercises like stretching, light yoga, or walking. If you feel any pressure around the piercing while performing these activities, it’s advisable to stop immediately.
Belly Button Piercings
If you just got a belly button piercing like this, it’s not a good idea to put too much strain on your abdominal muscles. Any form of core exercises like crunches, sit-ups, and heavy lifting should be given a rest for some time.
Instead, you can replace them with light jogging and brisk walking to get warmed up before light exercising, instead of engaging in an intense cardio session.
Be wary of where your waistband hits and avoid wearing compression leggings and leggings with a tight band around your waist.
Precautions to Take to Exercise After Piercings
The numerous physical and mental health benefits of regular exercise and working out can’t be ignored. Regardless of your preference to workout at home or at the gym, there are certain things that you need to keep in mind while you exercise after piercing, especially if it’s fresh, to avoid bruises or tearing of any kind.
Follow these simple tips to take care of your newly pierced skin while also making sure that you’re getting in your workout for the day.
Good Hygiene is Key
The area around your piercing is extremely sensitive. To ensure that you don’t gather any dirt there by sweating during exercise, you should keep it clean with a saline solution. For increased effectiveness, use the solution before and after your
workout to avoid any bacterial infections.
Pick Comfortable Clothes
Tight workout clothes can be a bane for freshly pierced skin. To avoid this, wear loose and comfortable clothes while working out. Make sure they are breezy and light and don’t touch your piercings too much while exercising. This will help you keep your focus on your exercise without getting sweaty.
Cover The Piercings
Before you begin to workout, use a simple cotton cloth to tie the area around your piercing. This will work as an extra layer of protection on your skin and help to avoid tearing of any sort.
Listen To Your Body
Feeling comfortable while exercising with piercings is of extreme importance. If at any point while exercising, you feel uncomfortable or the area around your piercing hurts, stop working out.
Instead, check your piercing. If it looks inflamed, clean the surrounding area with saline solution and change your clothes. After all, you’re working out to stay fit, and keep your body healthy. So, it’s important to listen to it too.
Say No To Chemicals
While the healing of your piercing proceeds, it’s natural for you to want to try many different products to make the process easier, but it will only mitigate the issue.
Avoid using any harsh chemicals or products on your piercing, instead go for a simple cleansing solution and keep the area safe from chaffing.
Wrapping Up Can You Workout After Piercing
We hope this guide helped you to understand how to care for a piercing in regards to exercise, understand if you can sweat after piercing, learn precautions to take for each type of piercing, and find out ways that you can exercise with your new piercing.
While finding time for exercise can be tough, it is important to take some time for self care to feel rejuvenated. After all, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
So, make sure you follow these tips when you decide to exercise with fresh piercings to avoid hurting yourself and staying fit at the same time.
This has been a guest post by Body Art Forms.
Sources:
https://vividinktattoos.co.uk/should-you-work-out-with-a-new-
piercing/#:~:text=Keep%20it%20clean,or%20out%20on%20your%20run.
https://www.byrdie.com/healing-working-out-with-a-new-piercing-or-tattoo-3189286
https://blog.freshtrends.com/exercise-and-healing-piercings/
https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-basics/tattoos/caring-for-pierced-
ears
